Chinese brewing under the Zhou dynasty (1045 to 256 BC)

Table 1 : Zhou palatial staff assigned to food and beverages (Chang 1977, see note [4])

Food and beverages are not separated from rituals and cults. The essentially agrarian foundations of political power in ancient China legitimize the kingship if it warrants the abundance of the fruits of the earth. Agricultural prosperity is a sign of heaven's blessing. Fermented beverages, especially grain beverages such as beer, are overloaded with symbolic meanings.

Numerous oracular texts on turtle shells speak of beer offerings. The gods are asked about the opportunity to make such and such a "beer sacrifice" on such and such a day and for such and such a reason. The rites cover a wide range of sacrificial activities: propitiatory offerings to request abundant harvests, healing or longevity; prayers to the gods; funeral ceremonies; honours to the ancestors; divination. Each time, the deities receive beer, roasted grains and sacrificial meat. Beer in Chinese oracular texts will be the subject of specialized articles by Beer-Studies.

The Li Chi (Book of Rites) abounds with references to the various kinds of jiu, the way of preparing these beers for offerings and of making them flow as a libation to the gods. In the chapter of the Monthly Ordinances (Yue Liang), it is said for what corresponds to the 9^th month of our calendar (October): "  In the second month of winter, orders are given to the Superintendent of Beer (jiu cheng) to control if the millet and rice are ready, the ferment and the seasonal malt, the soaking and heating conducted properly, the water scented, the earthenware jars in good condition, and the fire correctly regulated.  " This Superintendent manages the palace beer brewing, its logistics, technical means and its staff. Everything is there: the care of the grain and fuel stocks, the freshness of the water, the quality of the malt and the beer-ferments which must not be too old, i.e. preserved from the previous year. In October of each year, the harvests are made, new millet and rice are harvested, ready to by converted into beer.

We note the simultaneous presence of malt (nie) and beer ferment (qu).At the end of the Zhou dynasty, these two techniques of beer brewing coexisted perfectly at the service of the palace, the political centre of the country.

In the first summer month, the Monthly Ordinances provide that "the Son of Heaven entertains (ministers and princes) with beer-zhou 酧 ", therefore a very strong beer. According to the comments of the Han, the beer-zhou 酧 is brewed by saccharifying 3 successive batches of cooked grains in the saccharification-fermentation vat. This method makes it possible to increase the alcohol content, a result that can only be reached with amylolytic ferments (qu), whose fungi organisms tolerate a higher density of ethanol than the yeasts saccharomyces alone.

In the last month of spring, " the Son of Heaven presents yellow robes (ju i) like the leaves of the mulberry tree to the Divine Sovereign". The sign ju i denotes the yellow colour and would be a variant of the sign qu, the ferment for beer. The spores of Aspergillus oryzae are yellow. It's only a step to think that the old Zhou beer ferments are like today a culture of Aspergillus on cooked rice, a technology used to brew the sake-beer in Japan or the chang-beer in China. It should also be remembered that Aspergillus sporangia were found in beer jars from the Dingcun site, middle reaches of the Huang-He River (≈ 4500 BCE).

The royal ritual of the Zhou explores the symbolism of brewing long before. Each stage of the beer fermentation is named and is the subject of a specific step in the very precise and codified course of the ritual. Herewith the chart according to Wang Chin [5].

Table 2 : Ritual beers of the Zhou and their intermediary brewing states naming.

We note in the Shi Jing, a compendium of the popular traditions of the Zhou, that beer is traded on the local markets or made by craftmen or craftwomen specialised in beer brewing.

«  They fell down (the guests) the trees along the hill-side.
I have strained off 釃 my beers 酒 in abundance;
The dishes stand in rows,
And none of my brethren are absent.
The loss of kindly feeling among people,
May arise from faults in the matter of dry provisions.
If we have beer 酒, we strain it 湑, do I !
If we have no beer 酒, we buy it, do I !
I make the drums beat, do I !
I lead the dance, do I !
Whenever we have leisure,
Let us drink the sparkling beers 湑. »(Shi Jing, 165 : 伐木 FA MU [6])

This complaint from an innkeeper used to receiving drunkards sheds light on the small beer trade in the China of Zhou. This tavern keeper (male or female) serves food and drink, and could also brew beer on site. But this poem could also depict one funeral or festive meal offered by an extended family in a private context. In that case, "guest" is not a customer but a true guest in a family meeting :

« When guests are drunk,
They shout and bawl,
Upset my baskets and dishes,
capers, dance and fall down.
For those who are drunk,
They know nothing of the misdeeds they commit. » (Shi Jing, 220 : 賓之初筵 BIN ZHI CHU YAN)

This woman tavern keeper is probably also a brewer. In Chinese antiquity, commercial brewing was a female as well as a male activity. This village tavern-brewery does not work like the palace brewery. The latter is at the service of the aristocracy, supervised by numerous stewards, brewers and staff, as shown in Table 1. The village tavern-brewery is a small facility serving beer and meals to travellers, passing guests and natives. It is the very source of the many beers, which vary greatly from region to region, brewed with local ingredients and according to traditional and often inventive brewing recipes handed down from mother to daughter.

At the end of the Zhou dynasty (around 256 BC), everything was in place for the economic and social role of beer to grow in the emerging Chinese empire. This is a pivotal period in the history of Chinese beer brewing.

Technically speaking, there are many types of beer brewing cereals. The north (cereal zone) and the south (rice, beans and tubers zone) of the country are progressively unified within the future Han Empire. Brewing techniques are manifold. The 2 main methods are the malting and the amylolytic ferments. They enable a very wide range of starchy raw materials to be brewed: cereals, but also rice, tubers (taro, yams) and beans. This technical core can now be developed within the immense Chinese territory.

Economically speaking, beer is drunk by all categories of the population.The richness of the brewing techniques makes it possible to produce several kinds of beer for each social category, to sell it everywhere and make the beer affordable for everyone in all circumstances.

On a symbolic and religious level, beer has come out of royal palaces and temples. It continues to be used as an offering and libation in agrarian rites. But the strong and centralised political powers now see beer as the secular beverage for all subjects of the empire, a fermented beverage submitted to the rules of economic life (including taxes), stripped of its sacred religious character or its exclusive princely character.

Confucianism, Legism and Taoism prepare a unified vision of mankind. These three philosophical and political approaches are all formulated by the great masters of Chinese thought between the 6^th and the 2^nd century BC.

For a Confucianist, beer is the beverage of the social seemliness, a beverage offered with respect to the ancestors, the beverage of the social bondings drunk in the symbolism of exchange. Sharing beer according to a protocol means reaffirming the rights and duties of each human being within a highly hierarchical society. Master Kong (Kǒng Fou Zǐ, known as Confucius in western world) says :

« Abroad, to serve the high ministers and nobles; at home, to serve one's father and elder brothers; in all duties to the dead, not to dare not to exert one's self; and not to be overcome with beer. Which one of these things is difficult for me ?» (Lunyu IX. 16. 225). Drink beer during funeral rites is a duty of filial piety, but control the effects of beer is another duty for oneself. During the year, the season for honoring ancestors opens also a period of great consumption of ritual beers from rice or millet, some of them stronger like the shang-beer.

Even in feastings - in ancient China, the social life multiplies parties, meetings and opportunities to drink beer offered by hosts (Master Kong (Confucius)) keeps self-control: « When he took part in a feast where there was an abundance of provisions set in front of him, he changed countenance and rise up.» (Lunyu X. 25)

About Confucius' habits, the Analects of Confucius (Lunyu) say :

« Even when there was plenty of meat, he avoided eating more meat than rice. Only in the case of beer ( 酒 = jiu ) did he not set himself a rigid limit. He simply never drank to the point of becoming confused. He did not consume beer or dried meat bought from a shop.[7] » (Lunyu X. 8. 248).

For a Legist concerned with social order and the Law ( Fa 法 ), beer is a dilemma. As a source of taxes, beer is opportune for a strong power eager to boost is finances. But the beer brewing uses much precious grain that a provident state has to store in case of famine or starvation. Should beer brewing be encouraged or banned? It would be better to strictly regulate its production, sale and consumption.

Herewith is a measure enacted by the legist reformer Gongsun Yang (390 to 338 BC) in the state of Qin : " If the price of beer (酒) and meats by taxing them costs ten times more than the basic necessities, this measure will reduce the number of merchants and bring the humble back to sobriety (酤), the great to frugality. As merchants are rare, the price of grain will no longer rise; the people will be sober (酤), and agriculture will not be neglected. Civil servants are no longer gluttonous, and state affairs will no longer be botched."[8]. Note in passing that this is indeed a policy to control grain, its price, circulation, and economic uses.When one makes the mistake of translating Chinese jiu (酒) as wine instead of beer, the intrinsic links between beer, beer brewing and the agrarian economy remain misunderstood or, worse, invisible.

 For a Taoist, beer 酒 scrambles the mind and poisons the body. However, a mastered drunkenness also opens a small window through which a man's spirit  can perceive the Dao. This late conception was developed by taoist scholars, poets and painters under the Tang (618-907) and Song (960-1279) dynasties (Dao and Quest for Immortality). Taoist conceptions under the Zhou are part of traditional religious ceremonies, beer offerings, and are not hostile to the political exercise within the circles of power at the time.

 As many views as many faces of beer brewing in ancient China.

In fact always the same drink. The multifaceted beer crosses every social strata of pre-imperial China. This fermented beverage meets the wishes of the pious man (Confucius), the deeds of the political strategist (so the legalist Shang Yang) and the desires of the wise man (Laozi).

The sophisticated and strong beer-jiu served at the royal banquets as well as the ordinary clarified beer sold in inns and village markets will be integrated in a new ideological framework that foresees a place and a role for each one. The imperial organisation of the Han will merge these multiplefaceted beer (Great Empire founded by the Han).

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